Consciousness According to Shad Darsana ( The Six Systems of Philosophy in India)

Abstract

The word veda means "knowledge." In the modern world, we use the term "science" to identify the kind of knowledge upon which human progress is based and judged. To the Indian people, the word veda had an even more profound and deeper meaning than the word science is for us today. That is because in those days scientific inquiry was not restricted to the world perceived by the physical senses. A part from it the definition of human progress was not restricted to massive technological exploitation of material nature. In Vedic times, the primary focus of science was the eternal, not temporary; human progress meant the advancement of spiritual awareness yielding the soul's release from the material nature, which is temporary and full of ignorance and suffering.